Follow Us on Google
Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Imo State governorship election, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has urged the Imo State Election Petition Tribunal to nullify the declaration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a petition to the election tribunal, which was made available to newsmen in Abuja, Uzodinma urged the tribunal to declare him winner of the election, arguing that he polled majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and satisfied the mandatory constitutional threshold and spread across the state and “ought to be returned elected.”
The petition further alleged that the INEC excluded votes cast for the APC at the polling units across the state, which gave the PDP candidate advantage. He argued, however, that after tabulating the valid votes at the polling units, the APC candidate defeated the PDP candidate with a large margin.
The petition stated: “It was in the course of collation of the results at the ward, local government and state levels that the third respondent (INEC) incorrectly stated the votes of the first respondent (Ihedioha), and thus reduced the votes of the petitioner by excluding the results from the polling units where the petitioner scored overwhelming majority of the votes cast.”
It further averred that “in order to give unfair advantage to the first and second respondents, the INEC unlawfully credited the first and second respondents with votes arising from over voting in all of the polling units in Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu Mbaise local government areas.
The petition further argued that the INEC did not comply with the Electoral Act 2010 and INEC guidelines for 2019 general elections, when it recruited relatives of the PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha, as collation and returning officers in most of the local government areas in the state during the election.
The APC and its candidate, therefore, urged the tribunal to declare Uzodinma winner of the election having polled the highest valid votes of 310,458 as against 96,458 earlier credited to him by the INEC, or in the alternative, nullify the governorship election held in Imo State and order a fresh election to be conducted.
